Is spiritual warfare dangerous?

l want to discuss a very interesting aspect of spiritual warfare that I came across with recently. John Paul Jackson, a well-known preacher received some interesting insight directly from the Lord Jesus Christ a while ago on this subject. This insight came as a result of an occurrence in which John was involved. According to John, three different pastors all contacted him on a specific day to obtain advice from him. All three pastors experienced a difficult time in their lives. They were all unexpectedly facing either a personal crises or some problems within their respective congregations.

One pastor’s daughter disappeared and he had no idea what happened to her. The other pastor’s son ran away from home and the pastor had no idea why this incident occurred. He also did not know how to deal with this problem. The third pastor contacted John shortly after the other two. This pastor reported that six ladies in the congregation, who were all pregnant, simultaneously and unexpectedly experienced complications with their pregnancies. They were all facing unexplainable miscarriages.

These pastors, who were all from different locations, were all devastated. They all contacted John for advice. He promised to pray for them and to seek the Lord for guidance in these matters. John prayed the whole day but at the time he went to bed he still had no answer from the Lord. He however had a very interesting dream that night. In the dream he saw a very big moon very close to him. It appeared that the moon was touching the ground and it appeared to be no more than a few kilometers away. He then saw the silhouettes of three men standing on small platforms with their backs towards him. In the dream John noticed that the three men were all shouting at the moon.

Behind the men a crowd gathered and this crowd started cheering them on. John then noticed that all three of them were armed like cowboys with holsters and weapons in the holsters. Inside the holsters however, were no revolvers but hatchets or small axes. We know that in dreams an axe symbolizes judgment. The men started throwing the moon with these axes but it fell way short onto the ground. This means that the three men were busy applying judgment on something but the judgment did not come into affect. The moon, in this case, symbolized evil spirits, evil activities and an evil domain. Although these actions, the shouting and the throwing of the hatchets, had no effect, still these men carried on with these actions. In spite of this the crowd on the spectator stands kept on cheering these men on.

Every time the people cheered these men on their respective platforms raised a bit. Even the people on the spectator stands were elevated a bit every time they cheered. Eventually it was clear that everybody became tired. The shouting, the cheering and the throwing of axes made them wore out. The activities slowly declined and eventually the three men and the spectators got really tired. Soon they all fell asleep on the platforms and on the stands.

When these people were fast asleep, demons started slipping off from the moon and they quietly crept up onto them. They then suddenly launched an attack on the unsuspecting sleeping crowd that took them completely by surprise. When the three men and the people awoke they were under serious attack by these demons. John witnessed in the dream how the three men and the people were suffering under the attack. They were actually tormented and they did not stand a chance against these demons.

In the minutes that followed the Lord spoke to John. He told him that the reason for the tormenting and suffering was because these men and the crowd got engaged in something they were not called to be engaged in. They were acting and they were entering a realm or an area of dominion that they were not legally supposed to get involved in. The Lord then explained that he did not lead them to be engage into spiritual warfare with the enemy on this level, in this way or in this realm.

John Paul Jackson explains:

There are three areas of dominion. The first area of dominion is the third heaven where God reigns supreme. In this domain everything is complete and everything is according to the will of God. In this area of dominion God does not allow anything contrary to His will and His kingdom principles.

The second area of dominion is the second heaven. This is the spiritual realm of the heavenly beings like angels and demons. In this realm the heavenly beings have dominion. In this area of dominion God allows the heavenly beings to perform actions which is against His will and against His kingdom principles. This implies that in this realm demons do what they want. Although these demons do what they want, there are still principles in place that govern this realm. God has put these principles in place. Although He does not force His will down on these heavenly beings He still keeps them within certain boundaries.

Then thirdly, we have the natural realm which is the earth. In the natural realm man reigns supreme. People do what they want although, in this realm also, certain principles and laws have been put in place by God to keep mankind within certain boundaries. On earth we reign over our personal circumstances and in our own lives. God gave us our own free will and we can actually do what we want. He gave us a choice between good and evil and we have the free will to choose whatever we want. We can even contravene God’s will and His principles. We will however have to face the consequences of our decisions and our actions. This means that we also have to stay within certain boundaries determined by God. There are natural laws like, “If you jump off a bridge you will be injured or you will die”. This is a natural law and it will always come into play whenever somebody jumps off a bridge. We reign supreme and we can jump off the bridge if we want to. We can also decide not to jump off a bridge. In both instances we will either suffer the consequences of bad choices or we will reap the benefits of good choices and positive actions. There are also spiritual laws which do not differ from the natural laws in this regard. Again you can choose what you want to do with these laws and again you will also suffer the consequences of bad choices or we will reap the benefits of good choices.

When demons enter our realm or area of dominion they are in actual fact leaving their domain and entering ours. They have no legal rights to do that unless we give them legal rights to enter our realm. You as a child of God and as a king in the kingdom of God have the right and the power to cast these demons out of your circumstances. Demons have no other option but to obey when we legally act in the Name of Jesus Christ. Even when a person who is demon possessed comes to you for deliverance, you can take authority over these demons spirits in their lives and cast them out. These demons have no choice but to obey. Here on earth we reign according to the power and the authority that Christ Jesus gave us. We can live victorious lives and we do not have to submit to evil at all. This means that divine provision, divine maintenance, divine healing and divine protection belong to us, everyday of our lives. Demons have absolutely no rights in our area of dominion.

This is apparently a very different story, according to many preachers, when these demons have legal rights to enter our area of domain. An example of such a case was in the life of Kenneth Hagan sr. He once attempted to cast a demon out of a certain women. The demon refused to go out and he told Kenneth that the specific person actually wants him to possess her. When Kenneth discussed this allegation with the woman it turned out that her husband brought her for deliverance. She admitted that she actually wants the demon to possess her. This woman left without being delivered because the demon had legal rights to possess her.

Back to the problem with the three pastors:

John Paul Jackson contacted these pastors separately and all three of them confirmed that they and their congregations were in the midst of serious spiritual warfare against the principalities in their respective cities. They were busy tearing down the strongholds that the enemy has set up in their cities. John surprised all of them with the advice that he gave them.

He told them to stop these activities immediately because of the following reasons:

They are wasting their time with these tactics because they have no legal rights to do that. God did not lead them to do that and He will never lead them to do that. They should actually pray to God to remove those strongholds. They should also pray for the repentance of the people who gave the enemy the right to set up those strongholds in their cities. Only God can remove these strongholds. Mankind has no authority or dominion in and over this domain. The enemy actually succeeded to set up these strongholds legally.

Many people in their respective cities, through their own will and through their own actions have allowed the enemy to set up these strongholds. Spiritual warfare will achieve nothing to set the city free. The people of these cities need to repent in order for God to remove these strongholds. Christians can only and should only pray for their cities and for the people in their cities. Christians in these cities are protected against these strongholds because they were not responsible for these strongholds to come into existence in the first place. Christians and churches reign over their own lives and own areas of responsibility and influence. These strongholds have absolutely no effect on Christians, unless of course, they are part of the problem. Even non-believers are protected against these strongholds. These strongholds only affect the people who were responsible for allowing these strongholds to be put in place by evil spirits.

John then explained to the pastors the principle of the different areas of dominion. He also explained that it is actually rebellious to engage in something that God did not command them to do. They were actually following their own ideas and their own doctrines and their own ways. That is why this manifested in the natural through one pastor’s son rebelling against his father by running away from home.

Just as a demon is exposed in our domain and eventually cast out or chased away, so we also, when we enter their domain, are exposing ourselves and making ourselves vulnerable to them. That is why one pastor’s daughter got missing and the ladies of the other congregation were facing miscarriages. John told them to repent and he promised them that if they do that, everything will be restored immediately. The pastors and their congregations did repent and in fact everything was indeed restored within 24 hours.

I am generally not in favor of spiritual warfare. We should reign as kings in the kingdom of God over our own circumstances, our own areas of influence and areas of responsibility. This means we reign over the earth. This has however nothing to do with fighting demons. We are not supposed to be fighting the enemy. In a previous post I already explained that Jesus Christ already conquered over the enemy. You can read about that post here.

The questions I do want to ask are the following:

Does countries who are not involved in a war have military armies? Of course most do!

Are all the soldiers wearing uniforms and are these soldiers armed? Of course they do and of course they are armed!

How does these countries deploy these soldiers if the are not involved in war? They deploy them on border-posts to prevent hostile people or illegal people from entering their countries. Hostile people can be considered as enemies. These soldiers are also carrying out border patrols in order to prevent illegal excess into their countries. This is exactly what God wants us to do: Do not give the enemy any foothold!

Are we involved in a war? No, Jesus Christ already conquered the enemy. He completely defeated satan and his evil empire when He died on the cross. The Bible says that He nullified the enemy. Do we need to be alert like a soldier? Of course we do! Our enemy should never be under estimated. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”

How do we do this? Firstly take note that the Bible says we have a “struggle” or we “wrestle” against the enemy. We are not involved in a warfare. How do we wrestle against the enemy?

We stand against it. It means we do not give in to sin or unbelief.

We refrain from getting involved in sin and bad attitudes.

We live holy lives.

We keep ourselves busy with good things.

We submit ourselves to God.

We live in faith and we live obedient lives.

This way we do not give the enemy any foothold. This is manning our border-posts and this is patrolling our borders.

The devil is only interesting in two very important things in order to defeat us: He wants us to sin. He wants us to doubt. That is all he needs. The moment you live in sin, you start losing your righteousness. At that moment the devil has a foothold in your live. Also the moment you start living in sin, you start to doubt in God’s word. Why? Again because you lost your righteousness. When a child of God looses his righteousness, he immediately doubt if God’s promises will be effective in his life. That is how it is. If you loose your righteousness you are defeated.

How do we stand strong against the enemy? By not getting involved in sin. By not doubting in God’s word. That is all we need to do. This is the core message of the New Testament. Jesus, Paul and the other apostles constantly focused on the following important issues: Build up your most holy faith. Pray for each other. Pursue holiness. Keep yourself separated from this world. There is absolutely no evidence of any spiritual warfare in the Bible. Nowhere do you see that Jesus or the apostles were involved in the breaking of generational curses, shouting at evil spirits and breaking down strongholds. Nowhere do you see any judgment uttered onto evil spirits. No, the Bible says, “Submit yourselves to God, resist (take a stand against) the devil and he will flee from you.

In this post we read about three pastors who led their congregations into spiritual warfare. In this case we noticed, according to John Paul Jackson, that it was not the right thing to do. We read that spiritual warfare was not only ineffective but it also wore the congregations out. It did not achieve anything and instead it only brought problems and devastation. Many times through the years I have noticed people getting involved in spiritual warfare only to see them ending up facing all sorts of problems.

Spiritual warfare and generational curses got very much integrated through the years. If you read my book about the false doctrine called “generational curses” (At this stage only available in Afrikaans although it is currently being translated into English) you will see this doctrine completely exposed as a false doctrine birthed in hell. My opinion is that “spiritual warfare” is no different. Both are strategies the enemy use to keep people in bondage. If you still think you should achieve deliverance by means of something called “spiritual warfare”, it actually implies that mankind was not yet set free. It implies that Jesus did not carry out a complete work of redemption.

Is spiritual warfare dangerous? I think it is! It is not Scriptural and therefore a false doctrine. Jesus Christ and the apostles did not preach this doctrine and they did not carry out any of the actions promoted by people who believe in this doctrine. Also, if demons have legal rights in people’s lives, those people need to repent. That is the bottom line. If we engage in or if we get involved in false doctrines, we are bound to pick up problems.

I have no doubt about the reality of this fact. We should rather spend our precious time with God. Submit ourselves to Him. Learn from Him. Read and study the word of God. Apply the word of God. Refrain from sinning. Keep our minds on God. Take every thought captive and replace it with the word of God. Pray. This is true Biblical and divine protection against the enemy. Give the enemy no place and no foothold in your life.